


The Uncanny Adventures of a Boy and His Dog

by dragoneyes



Series: Pet Therapy Werewolf (aka: The Wuffguru AU) [1]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-15
Updated: 2019-09-15
Packaged: 2020-10-19 09:44:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20655167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragoneyes/pseuds/dragoneyes
Summary: There was a dog sitting in front of the main gate to his house.





	The Uncanny Adventures of a Boy and His Dog

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look, it's another _completely unplanned series_!  
Thank you HakuKai discord for being a terrible influence on me once again. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

There was a dog sitting in front of the main gate to his house.

It was a gangly thing with long limbs, pointy ears and a triangular muzzle. Its fur was of a light tan color that became darker nearer to its back, its chest was narrow, and it was peering up at Heiji with unblinking yellow-orange eyes.

It looked like someone had decided to take a wolf and put it on a diet, leaving only bones and skin behind.

"What the hell...?" Heiji muttered, taking a step closer to the gate to see what the animal would do. It watched him without making a sound, its eyes tracking his movements until he was only a meter away from his destination. Then it raised to its paws and, with the kind of aplomb Heiji had never seen on a dog before, it began to take one step after another in his direction.

"Ohi!" the boy called out, trying to shush away the animal with a wave of his leg.

The dog didn't as much as flinch.

In fact, it just stared back at him, waited for him to stop with all the flailing, and resumed his stride until it was standing in front of him.

Again Heiji tried to scare him away with the sharp swing of a leg.

Again the dog just stared back at him, amber eyes unimpressed at his efforts.

"What?" Heiji took an involuntary step back when it began to look like the animal would not let him be: he was not generally easily scared, but now that he could examine it from up close, the boy realized that - although very thin - the thing had quite a long muzzle, and that a muzzle that sizeable could only conceal quite an impressive set of fangs.

The dog peered back at him in stubborn silence for a few moments still, then it gave an impatient huff, and it closed the distance between them to circle around Heiji and use its whole body to push him towards the gate.

"Wait! Wait! What the--you aren't coming home with me! Stop that!" Heiji shouted in outrage, suddenly understanding what the animal's intentions were.

It produced no effect other than another huff, and the feeling of a big triangular head pushing against the small of his back. Before he could quite find a solution to his current predicament, Heiji found himself passing through the gate and into the garden.

"Would you knock it off?!" he finally snapped, twirling around to face the animal who so far had seemed very insistent in attempting to force its own adoption on him. It gave a displeased snort, and if it weren't a dog he was having a dispute with, Heiji swore he was being looked at with outright contempt.

"No, you aren't my dog! Get the hell out!" he repeated, pointing at the outer entrance in the hope it would finally understand that it wasn't welcome there.

_ Was that a _ scoff_?! _

Heiji watched agape gave a despondent bark and suddenly sprang forward in an attempt to circle around him.

Fuck no! He wasn't gonna get beaten by a freaking _ dog _!

Taking advantage of his good reflexes, he kept himself between it and the house. It attempted a few sharp changes of direction to throw him off, but Heiji wasn't an idiot and he kept his movements minimal, blocking his way only when he was sure what it was up to.

When it became clear they were both at a stalemate, the dog gave a frustrated whine, its amber eyes narrowing and its white fangs taking a peek from its still-closed mouth, before a more menacing sound rumbled out of its chest.

_ Alright, that maybe isn't such a good sign_, Heiji considered, watching it pace back and forth with the restless energy of a caged lion. Maybe he should try to make a break for the door and attempt to lock the stubborn thing outside...

"Heiji? Is that you making all this ruckus?" a call came suddenly from inside before he could decide on his next move, followed by the muffled sound of steps moving closer.

Oh no.

That was _ his mother_!

"Okan, wait! Don't--!" he shouted, trying to warn her about the dog, only to make the mistake of following the instinct to turn towards her voice: abruptly a tan-colored furred missile shot past his peripheral vision, taking advantage of his distraction to run by him without having its way blocked for the umpteenth time.

Fuck!

With horror freezing his veins, Heiji watched as his mother slid the door open, a look of confused surprise making its way on her face at the sight of the dog running towards her. He watched the furred beast making a beeline in her direction, muzzle wide and big paws clapping against the walkway.

Then, when it was just a meter away from her, it...

...stopped?

Uh?

It just stopped right in front of her, long tail and pointy ears perked up, and it gave a bark of greeting, before closing the few steps remaining between the two of them at a more sedated pace.

"And who are you?" she hummed, not at all bothered by what just happened.

The dog, like the true asshole that Heiji was beginning to suspect it to be, gave a soft whine and reached to nose at the back of her hand affectionately, making her laugh softly in amusement.

"Oh my, you're a friendly one," she considered, studying the way it quietly sat at her feet, big amber eyes now watching her with the innocence of a newborn puppy.

"And a polite one too."

She reached to pet its head and the dog allowed it without any fuss, going as far as to lean into her touch to show its appreciation.

"Okan, get away from that thing!" Heiji snapped when his body finally released from its locked state, and he closed the distance between them with a few urgent strides.

"It's dangerous!"

Again Heiji was scoffed at, this time by an impatient huff from his mother.

"What are you talking about, this animal has been clearly trained," she pointed out, reaching under the long muzzle to scratch at that sensitive spot that most dogs shared.

"Besides, didn't you notice the collar?" she added, hooking one long finger under the dark leather band to show it to her son.

Heiji hadn't, he'd been too busy avoiding being reverse-adopted by a potentially dangerous animal.

"The tag doesn't have an address," she considered, moving on with her examination, and the teen detective followed her gaze: there was indeed a round medal hanging from the front, with an unusual triangular design on one side and the kanji for "white" on the other.

Shiro?

Was that the dog's name? It wasn't white though.

"Well, I guess we'll have to hang fliers then," she finally proclaimed, watching with amusement as the dog got back to its feet at her words and barked meerily back at her.

What the...

"We're not keeping it!" Heiji protested, glaring at the object of that whole discussion. It answered by giving a pitiful whine, ears and tail drooping in dismay, while he moved closer to the teen's mother.

"Of course we are," the adult woman stated in return, absently patting the hand now once again within reach of her fingers. "It's a pet, you just don't abandon someone's lost pet back in the street if you find it."

"You don't even know if it's wanted by its owner anymore!"

Heiji knew he was beginning to sound a bit whiny in his objections, but he couldn't help it: it might be a bit paranoid of him, but he had the keen impression that the dog knew very well what effect it was having on his mother with those whimpers he kept letting out.

"For all we know, they have no intention of taking it back!"

His mother's mouth pursed into an unhappy _mou_, before she let out a huff at his antagonizing disposition, as if _he_ was being the unreasonable one between the two of them.

"I guess we'll have found ourselves a dog then," she declare with the kind of finality that Heiji knew meant all hope was lost, and then she gave a gentle smile at the animal as if it needed reassurance that it wasn't going to be thrown out to fend for itself on her watch.

"Now let's find you something to eat," she hummed, earning a delighted bark in return, while she made her way back to the main door.

With a scowl on his face, the teen detective watched the dog trot after her with barely-contained excitement, long tail wagging back and forth in approval at being granted access inside the house.

When it was about to pass the doorstep, it sent one last glance towards Heiji, and the latter could swear he saw smug entitlement twisting the corners of its fanged mouth, before the dog turned its back to him once again, and it strutted inside.

******

Of course the dog had to have good manners.

It looked almost dainty in the way it would meticulously eat one piece of meat after another from the ceramic plate that was its temporary bowl, making sure to grab each of them with just the tip of its muzzle before swallowing it down.

If it were noisy or dirty or any other thing that normal dogs were, Heiji could have built a case on how annoying it was to have it around, but no, the only thing remarkable about how it ate its food was the quickness with which it manages to empty its plate and yet still keep itself perfectly clean in the process.

Even when it lapped at the nearby water, it did it without splashing even a drop on the floor.

Normally Heiji didn't mind dogs - they were fun to play with, in a spazzed out, crazy animal kind of way - but, when it came down to this one - this specific asshole of a canine - he was sure the only reason why it kept behaving so politely was because his mother was still in the room, watching it fill itself up with a pleased smile on her face.

When its bottomless pit of a stomach was finally satisfied, the dog gave an affectionate rub to the older woman's hand, before tilting its head in Heiji's direction to send him what could only be described as a self-satisfied glance.

If it weren't for the size of the fangs that the teen detective had managed to glimpse between one bite and the other, he would have throttled it.

******

The dog passed the rest of the day by laying in the _ engawa_, taking advantage of the warm early summer sun to sleep to its heart's content.

Heiji was fine with this turn of events, because it meant he wouldn't have to listen to his mother gush over everything that that ball of fur did.

******

When his father came back home that evening, the dog merrily trotted to him, nosed its way into picking his work suitcase from his hand, and it just as merrily went back inside.

The asshole that it was.

******

At least it had the decency of sleeping in the garden that night.

******

The next day, Heiji was woken up by 60-to-80 kilograms of dog perching its big paws on his stomach and barking in its face, apparently displeased by the fact that the boy had managed to sleep through his alarm, and that the latter was still beeping away a storm in an attempt at doing its job properly.

"Fuck! Fuck! I get it!" Heiji shouted, blindly reaching for the offensively noisy machine and slamming it off with maybe a bit more force than necessary.

The animal peered back at him, menacing amber eyes gleaming in the dim light, then it snorted in Heiji's face, dog breath making him wince and pull away in disgust, and then it finally turned away to jump off his body.

Its tail hit Heiji square in the face on its way down.

******

After the third time he was woken up in the same barky, smelly way, Heiji finally decided to hang those fliers his mother made before going to school.

Maybe someone would actually turn up to take the demon beast away, before he was forced to invest in a more permanent way to keep it outside.

Like a chain.

Or several.

His mother would not approve, but Heiji was willing to attempt making a case of The Dog having tangled itself in them by accident.

******

He was being stared at.

Heiji could not see it from the position he was currently holding, but he knew there were a pair of yellow-orange eyes watching every swing of his _shinai_ with judgement.

In hindsight it was probably his fault for deciding it was a good day to practice outside in the garden, but he honestly thought that The Dog would grow bored of him repeating the same motions over and over again, and that it would leave him alone in order to entertain itself in some other fashion.

Instead it was watching his every move from the spot in the _engawa_ it had by now claimed for its own, belly laying on the wooden floor, and big front paws crossed on one another. Heiji knew because it had been resting there when he arrived, and he had no doubt that it hadn't moved since.

A quick glance behind his back confirmed that The Dog was still indeed observing him, part of its tail hanging from the edge of the _ engawa_, and its ears twitching and twisting at sounds Heiji couldn't hear himself.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" he complained aloud, only to receive a considering tilt of the animal's triangular head in return.

"Of course you don't," muttering those words, Heiji took a deep breath and focused again: it didn't matter if he was being watched or not, there was training to be done, and he wouldn't let himself get distracted by an animal, of all things.

For the next two hours he let himself sink into his usual routine, until he was drenched with sweat and his muscles were sore in the most satisfying way. He let out a pleased sigh and stretched his back, feeling more relaxed than he'd been in days.

When he turned with the intention of going back inside and take a much deserved bath, he found that The Dog had left his perch in the shade to sit right there next to him. It was peering up at him with those large amber eyes of its, and it was holding a plastic bottle in its mouth.

As soon as Heiji landed his gaze on the animal, it took the last few steps separating them and offered him the cold water.

"Uh...thanks?" the boy blinked in bewilderment at that unexpected gesture, as he reached out for it.

It was only when the dog had already made its way back to the _engawa_ and laid once again in its usual spot, that Heiji realized the bottle in his hand came from his fridge, and that the animal had apparently managed to open it somehow.

******

"You stink," Heiji commented, watching The Dog send him a flat glance as he took a sip from the water bottle it had once again brought to him after practicing his swings.

"What? Don't give me that look," the boy continued, nudging its side with the tip of a foot. "I know _I_ stink too: I've been training for hours. What have _you_ been doing other then perching there like a crow?"

The Dog was slowly blinking back at him, head tilted to one side in mild curiosity, and Heiji grinned in amusement at the sight.

"Come on," he prompted the animal, giving him a stronger nudge, "I think Okan is secretly wishing for your owner not to come get you back, and she already got some special shampoo for you."

******

In hindsight Heiji probably should have known that he would have ended up drenched in water when The Dog inevitably shook itself at the end of its bath.

Then again the weather was warm, and Heiji would have to take a bath regardless, after sweating the whole afternoon.

The Dog had been good and obedient the whole way through the process, letting him rub his fur without even a sound of protest, and it seemed to especially enjoy when Heiji used the garden's hose to wash it clean.

All in all, the experience could have been worse.

******

Sometimes - just sometimes, when he was already overloaded by everything else - Heiji wished he didn't share so many personality traits with Kazuha.

Case in point: the shouting.

Normally he liked the shouting: he liked that she would clearly tell him her mind, and that she wouldn't shy away from confronting him if he was being shit to her.

Today, however, was not a good day for shouting.

It was one of those days in which nothing seemed to go right: stuff broke without an apparent reason, his feet were dumb and he would keep hitting the corners of the furniture around him, and erveryone he spoke to seemed to be doing their damn best at making him finally blow up and break their nose.

With a frustrated groan he let himself fall to the living room's floor and he covered his eyes with an arm, feeling his head pound behind them. Maybe, if he laid there and did nothing for an hour or two, he would feel marginally better afterwards.

Of course, today was not a good day, and so his peace didn't last for long.

It took an indefinite amount of time before he heard the familiar soft padding of paws, and then a furry presence was hovering next to him, where The Dog decided to sit its heavy ass down.

"What do _you_ want?" the boy muttered, letting his arm slide away to reveal that he had been right, and the animal was peering at him with an unimpressed stare.

It was also holding a pillow in its mouth.

"Uh? What--" he only managed to start asking, before it was promptly thrown in his face.

"What the fuck?!" he snapped, the sound of his voice coming muffled at first, until his flailing dislodged the dog's offensively soft weapon of choice from its attempts at choking him.

By the time he managed to pull himself on his elbows, The Dog had put some distance between the two of them, and he was now lingering in the _ engawa _, stance alert and ready to bolt to the safety of the garden.

It was also holding Heiji's hat in its mouth.

The fucker.

"Get that back here!" with that shout of war, the boy jumped to his feet and he threw himself after the mischievous animal, previous frustration completely forgotten in favor of the feeling of elation that came with a chase.

******

The Dog was doing again that thing it did in which he barked happily whenever Heiji's mom was around, wagging its tail in a relentless back and forth.

She'd just come back from visiting a friend, and she must have stopped to buy something on her way back, because there was an anonymous plastic bag hanging from one of her wrists.

As soon as she was in sight, The Dog promptly abandoned its usual pastime of teen-detective-watching to get a - apparently much more enticing - round of petting.

"Hello, Shiro-chan, how have you been?" of course Heiji's mom would be all over that demand for attention: without even a moment of hesitation, she scratched its head, while it snuffled at her purchase with inquisitiveness in return.

"Kiss-ass!" Heiji called out, when he saw its tail's wagging rate grew of a couple of notches even as it pretended to be interested in other things.

He gulped down the water that - once again - was provided by The Dog just before his mother's arrival, and then he took his time to join them in their excitable little reunion.

Oh great, his mother was acting like a little girl in the presence of her favorite pet now.

"What have you got there?" the boy asked slipping the bag out of the woman's grasp to take a look inside. "Is that a ball? Have you started buying it toys?"

"It's not a ball," his mother huffed, promptly taking her possession back in order to show what she bought to the animal sitting at their feet. It still looked like some kind of bright green rubber ball, about twenty centimeters in diameter, and it made a rustling sound when shaken, which meant it must be hollow and filled up with something.

There was also a small hole on one side.

Heiji didn't have any time to think about what that thing was supposed to be because, as soon as it laid its gaze on it, The Dog started barking its head off, eyes wide with excitement and big muzzle already pushing its way between them to get to the toy.

His mother let out a pleased laughter at its obvious approval, and she let the ball fall to the ground. Immediately The Dog started pawing at it, jumping after it as it rolled around in the grass, wild swings of its tail now reaching the kind of force that could power up half of Osaka in a time of crisis.

"Is that dog food?" Heiji squinted at the small object falling out of the hole he had previously noticed. It was promptly swallowed up by the pointy vacuum cleaner that was The Dog's mouth.

"It's a dispenser," his mother explained, before crouching down to scoop the ball back in her hand.

"It can also be used like this," she added, and then threw the toy in the air. It made an elegant curve that was cut short by 70-plus kilograms of dog jumping after it in a fruitless attempt at catching it mid-flight. The ball hit the ground and kept bouncing off, making for even more of an exciting chase.

The Dog looked downright euphoric at the gift it was given, and Heiji had to remind himself that he should not be grinning at this, as The Dog was not his pet, and, in fact, it had forced its presence on them all.

It wasn't cute.

Not at all.

Not even when it came running back to them, its tail now having probably reached tornado-creation level of wagging, in order to insistently push the offensively brightly-colored ball against Heiji's hand in a demand to throw it again.

Shit.

******

"Is that a fucking _ wolf_?!"

Kudo had stopped dead frozen in the middle of the walkway to Heiji's house, and he was staring agape as The Dog munched on the treats delivered by its ball-shaped dispenser just a few meters from them.

Luckily his nee-chan and Kazuha had both already walked inside, and so they didn't notice the unchildlike reaction from the miniaturized detective.

"Of course not, Kudo, what are you talking about?" Heiji huffed, watching the animal pause its playtime to stare in their direction, attention attracted by all the noise. Silently it pawed its way closer, making a beeline towards the child-sized teen to further investigate the small newcomer.

It was honestly hilarious seeing his usually unflappable friend take a step back when a pointed muzzle began to sniff all over his body to get a hold of his scent.

"This is Kudo! Be nice to him!" Heiji grinned at the animal, while he crouched down to wrap an arm around his tiny friend. The Dog turned its amber gaze to him, uncertain for some reason, and it gave a questioning whine.

"Kudo," the dark-skinned teen repeated helpfully, and the animal seemed to get it this time, because it turned its attention back on the child and gave a friendly bark.

"Will you stop saying it that loudly!" Kudo hissed in the meantime, attempting to struggle away from his hold and failing at it due to their difference in size.

"What?" Heiji laughed, finding the fussy reaction hilarious.

"It's a dog! It's not gonna tell anyone!"

As if to further underline that point, The Dog decided that was the right moment to jump on them and show all of its affection by sending the two teens to the ground in order to slobber both their faces in canine saliva.

******

Somehow, The Dog managed to accidentally push its way into a murder scene with them.

The animal had apparently taken a shine to Kudo - Heiji highly suspected that his friend's diminutive size triggered some kind of "protect the puppy" instinct in it, but he had refrained to say it aloud so far - and it insisted on tagging along when the two detectives went out to have lunch.

Of course, with their track record, there was no way they wouldn't bump into a murder along the way.

For the most part, The Dog had been content with just sniffing the area and studying its surroundings without touching anything - which had been convenient, because the Osakan teen couldn't keep track of it while busy investigating - until it suddenly started to bark for their attention.

"What now?" Heiji grumbled, closing the distance between them to make it stop. It was standing next to the body, out of the forensics officers' way, and it was pawing insistently at the ground just a handful of centimeters away from the victim's shoulder.

"You smelling something there?" he wondered, crouching down next to the animal.

"Maybe it wants us to look under the body," Kudo offered, when The Dog lowered its head until it was almost touching the ground and it let out an insistent whine of prompting.

It turned out there was indeed something under the body: it was a bright pink rhinestone that seemed to belong to one of the suspects' jeans, one who insisted she hadn't seen the victim all day long.

"That's a smart dog," Kudo hummed in appreciation, sending the animal a satisfied smirk.

"It's a fucking terror, it's what it is," Heiji retorted, trying his best not to sound fond when he noticed The Dog peering back at him with perked ears and lightly wagging tail, like it was proud of itself for its helpfulness and it were eagerly waiting for some much deserved praise in return for its good deed.

He failed spectacularly at hiding a grin at the sight.

******

Heiji stared at the dog that came out of the door, his mouth agape as he could still hear the sound of flushing water coming from the room it had just vacated.

"Did you just use the fucking _ toilet_?!"

The only answer he received was an indecipherable grunt, before the animal trotted off without a care in the world.

******

Heiji scrubbed his hands over and over under the cold water, nails digging almost painfully into his skin in an attempt at getting them rid of the phantom sensation of warm thick liquid slipping through his fingers. He had already washed them four times, and he still felt like there was more of it hiding under his nails, or in the little creases between one phalanx and the next.

He was now back at home, and he wasn't quite sure how exactly he ended up there, because his stupidly good memory was too busy replaying in great details what happened when he wasn't quick enough, when he didn't react fast enough, when he didn't make sure all suspects were weaponless before explaining his deductions.

The murderer had been not a bad person.

She had been scared, and abused, and forced to live with all that anger churning inside her frail bird-like body for so many years, until she snapped and went at her abuser's throat with a knife. Then, when Heiji - like a fucking dumbass - confronted her about it without taking into consideration her mental state, she turned that anger on herself with that same knife she'd been keeping hidden on herself all along.

Heiji had tried to help her as much as he could, pressing against the wound to keep as much blood inside until the ambulance came and took her away.

A questioning whine brought his attention back to where he was, and when he looked up, he saw The Dog staring back at him from the mirror, lingering at the bathroom's door with uncertainty filling its yellow-orange eyes.

"What the fuck do you want?!" Heiji snapped, his nerves still buzzing, and his stomach still clenching on its contents, like it wanted to let it all out but at the same time it couldn't relax enough to achieve that.

Instead of being alarmed by his outburst, the animal looked worried, triangular ears flattening sideways while it tilted its head to one side with a softer whine. Then it took a slow step closer.

No.

Heiji didn't need that.

Heiji definitely didn't need that.

He needed to go back to scrubbing his hands raw until he was sure there was no more trace of blood left on them.

Angrily he shoved them back under the cold jet of water and he squeezed his eyes shut, stubbornly willing his brain into pitch black void. It took all of his focus to avoid going back to those images he had to witness just a few hours before, so he didn't notice at first when his not-pet closed the remaining distance between them.

Then a gentle paw lightly patted him on the side, and it was like all the pent up frustration, all the anger at his inability to _do anything about that_ came bursting out like water from a broken dam.

"Get the fuck away from me!" he shouted, body sharply twisting around and one of his legs shooting out to scare away the molesting presence at his side.

He felt his ankle connect with the dog's warm body, then there was the sound of bone hitting the hard edge of the door followed by a yelp of pain, and all blood froze in Heiji's veins, instantly sobering him up from the rage that had been blinding him.

Shiro was laying on the floor, eyes blinking in confusion as it let out a soft, befundled whine.

Oh no.

Oh no.

That hadn't been Heiji's intention.

That hadn't been his intention at all!

He had just wanted to scare the animal away and be left alone, that was all!

Shaking himself from his stillness, the boy crouched down next to the dog to examine it: there was a cut on its forehead, between the eyes, that was bleeding and turning its tawny fur to a darker maroon.

Heiji had no idea if wounds to head worked for dogs the same way they did for humans - if they tended to bleed profusely even with small cuts - but he got a damp towel anyways, and he pressed it carefully against it.

"I'm sorry..." the boy whispered, shame and guilt squeezing his chest tight: the animal might be a bit unruly and uncooperative at times, but it didn't deserve that treatment, and it certainly didn't deserve to be harmed when all it was attempting to do was to give Heiji some comfort.

"Fuck..." he breathed out, shuffling closer so that he could give a few gentle strokes to its back. It neither protested, nor it attempted to move away from his touch, in fact, one of its paws moved to rest on his thigh.

Heiji's gaze fell on the hand still pressing the towel against the animal's wound, and he clenched his teeth: there was blood on his hands again.

Again.

Again.

_ Again._

He squeezed his eyes shut once more, feeling his breath coming out more raggedly, and he attempted to will his body into compliance, to stop being such a whiny little shit and to get a hold of itself: it was not the first time he saw blood on a case, there was no reason to react like this.

There was no reason.

None at all.

Shit.

He was brought back from the downwards spiral of his thoughts by an encouraging sound and the sensation of warm wetness against his fingers.

When he opened his eyes again he saw that Shiro had turned under his hold and he was now lapping his hands, licks purposeful and careful, covering all surface available and completely ignoring its own injury in the process.

_ Oh_, Heiji thought as he watched the way the animal meticulously sniffed him to make sure nothing offensive still lingered after its passage, _ it's cleaning up the blood. _

Shiro must have realized that was what upset him, and it was doing his best to help him out.

Fuck.

Why was Shiro the only one to care?

Why was he the only one who bothered to make sure Heiji was alright?

Why was the teen detective dismissed as either too hot-blooded or too emotional, if he hated when something like that happened?

What good was there in being cold and detached when examining a scene, if it also undermined your investment into solving the case? Wasn't it normal to be more focused when you actually wanted people to be happy and good and _ healthy_, instead of just wanting for someone to be put into jail?

It wasn't fair.

Fuck.

His eyes stung, and Shiro was watching him with a worried amber gaze. The cut on the animal's forehead had stopped bleeding, but just looking at him made Heiji's chest twist with guilt: he hadn't meant to do that, he had just wanted to be left alone.

"Fuck..." the watery curse barely had the time to leave his lips, before the tip of a triangular muzzle began to rub all over his face, dump big nose leaving a humid trail behind its passage as the animal sitting in front of him shuffled closer with a whine.

There was suddenly a lapful of furred canine on Heiji.

It was warm and comforting, and instinctively the boy reached out to wrap his arms around the dog's neck.

Shiro let himself be hugged for as long as Heiji wanted, without trying to get away from him even once.

If the teen detective let a few tears of frustrations fall from his face and sink into the tawny fur, neither of them acknowledged it.

******

Shiro was watching the moon again.

In the last two weeks Heiji had seen it happen a few times, when he'd woken up at night for one reason or another.

The dog was laying in his usual spot, muzzle turned up and long gangly body bathed in moonlight. It made him look a bit eerie, like some kind of _bakemono_ biding its time, before making its deadly move.

"Moon-watching again?" Heiji asked, moving closer to sit at the animal's side. He was greeted by a pair of amber eyes shifting all their focus on him and a big front paw briefly patting his thigh before falling back on the _ engawa_'s wooden floor.

"What? You think you're a werewolf or something?" Heiji chuckled, giving a playful poke to the animal's forehead: it was almost the full moon after all.

Shiro answered with an unimpressed huff, but he still watched with curiosity when the teen shuffle his body around so that they were laying next to each other, shoulder against shoulder. The dog gave a considering sound, before comfortably laying its head down on its front paw, warm eyes peering at Heiji and giving him all of the attention they were capable of.

He was completely ignoring the moon now, and it made an involuntary smile bend the corner of the boy's lips up.

"Hey," the teen whispered, voice quiet like he was sharing a secret, and cheeks feeling just a little bit warmer at what he was about to ask. "If your owner doesn't come to get you back, can I keep you?"

Shiro's only answer was to shuffle closer until their heads were laying side to side.

******

The next morning, Heiji purposely ignored the sound of pictures being taken, when his mother found out that the two of them had slept the rest of the night wrapped around one another.

******

In hindsight, Heiji knew he was gonna have to give up on Shiro the moment he saw him freeze in the middle of the garden, give a pensive sniff at the air, and then suddenly turn his head turn up to let out a drown-out howl. It was a both melodic and melancholic sound, and nothing like anything the teen had heard the neighborhood's dogs let out in the past.

Shiro had never done anything like that before either.

"You ok, buddy?" he asked when the animal stopped, but the latter didn't seem to mind him, his ears too busy twitching around as they picked up some new sounds that Heiji couldn't hear himself.

Then the dog suddenly sprang into action, long limbs making him bolt past the teen in the blink of an eye, as the animal went to circle around the house in order to get to the main entrance.

"What the..."

It took Heiji several moments to realize what just happened, then he shook his head and made his way after the dog who had decided to ditch him for no apparent reason.

As he walked closer to his destination, he realized that he could make out two people talking in the distance.

"--told you about the dog two weeks ago, when we met at the station," that was his father's voice speaking to someone else. He was answered by a jovial laugh, as if its owner were used to the stern tone and he were completely unaffected by it.

"Since he was in good hands and I still had some business to attend to, I thought I would let him socialize with someone new for once," the voice that answered his accusation was earthy and amused, with no sign of contrition whatsoever.

Heiji had never heard anyone talk to his father like that before.

When he turned the last corner and he could have a view of the newcomer, the teen was met by the sight of a stocky man, slightly shorter than his dad and about the same age, with an impressive mustache and a wide smile that contrasted sharply with the severe expression his amicably was being met with.

He was vigorously scratching Shiro's sides, while the dog made its best attempt at trying to climb into his arms, his tail wagging so wildly that it was hinder his movements.

It turned out that was Superintendent General Hakuba.

It also turned out that Shiro was apparently the Hakuba household's dog, and that the animal had run away while his owner was visiting Osaka for work-related reasons.

Shiro was also apparently called Ace - in English of course - of all fucking things, because that was the name one particularly teen asshole decided to give the dog when he was eleven years old.

This was so unfair.

Heiji really tried to be a good sport about it - that wasn't his pet, and he was a bit of a four-legged smug nightmare anyways - but he really wasn't sure he could completely keep his contempt away from his face, not when Shiro - Ace - had managed to get his owner to pick him up like he was some kind of overgrown puppy, and he was now proceeding to shower the older man in slobbery dog kisses.

"Heiji-kun?" the teen was distracted from his sour mood when the Superintendent General addressed him, friendly smile still firmly on his face. "Thank you for taking care of this one, I know he's a bit of a handful: I fear we spoil him too much sometimes."

Heiji felt his cheek grow warmer at the sincere gratitude, unused to be thanked so directly, and he automatically scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"It was no trouble," he replied, watching Shiro - _ Ace_, damn it! - turn his big head in his direction and peering back at him with those big amber eyes of his. "He's kinda bossy, but he's fun to have around."

At least Superintendent General Hakuba seemed like a nice man - nothing like his son - and a good owner, if the way he kept absently petting the dog's side was anything to go by.

The smile on the man's face became more amused at his comment. He opened his mouth with the intention to say something in return, but that was when Shiro - _ Ace_, fuck dammit! - twisted in his hold until he could hop back on the ground.

The dog trotted over to Heiji and let out an unexpected whine.

"What? What is it, buddy?" the teen frowned, confused by the sudden change in mood in the animal: he was so happy just a moment ago, so why was he acting so dejected now?

He got his answer when Shiro - _ Ace_, for fuck's sake! - suddenly went up on his hind legs, perching himself with one big front paw on each of Heiji's shoulders, and he began to rub his head all over the teen's face.

Oh.

Shit.

Now Heiji's eyes stung a bit.

"I'm gonna miss you..." he quietly mumbled against the dog's neck, and the animal seemed to share the sentiment, because he let out another unhappy whine.

This was so unfair.

"Well, if you two boys would like to listen to an old man's idea..." their shared misery was cut short by a now familiarly cheery voice, "I would like to propose a solution to the current dilemma."

The smile on Superintendent General Hakuba's face didn't change, but somehow, it now gave off a mischievous aura in addition to its usual level of friendliness. It made Heiji pause, an arm still wrapped around Shiro - _Ac_\--ah, whatever the actual fuck - to keep him steady, and he watched with bewildered fashination as _his dad _\- ! - sent a sharply suspicious look at the man at his side.

"Hakuba-san, what are you plotting _ now_?" he asked, and his tone sounded strained, as if he were trying very hard not to show any kind of excessive reaction to what sounded so far like an innocuous attempt at helpfulness.

"Ara?" the Superintendent General sent him a surprised look. "Are we back to family names again? I thought we switched to first names a long time ago, Heizo-kun..."

_ Heizo-kun. _

"Hakuba..." his dad started again, this time unable to completely keep the exasperation away from his voice.

Holy shit, what was going on here?!

"Heiji-kun, I was thinking..." and now he was completely ignoring Heiji's father, in favor of addressing the teen himself instead, "...since you and Ace obviously get along well, and Ace seems quite displeased by the idea of separating from you for too long, how about I officially extend to you an invitation to come visit him whenever you like?"

Even if he wanted to, the boy couldn't help his mouth from falling open in astonishment at the sudden proposal.

Of course he would like that! Who the fuck wouldn't?! That sounded great! More than great!

Shiro must be sharing his sentiment, because suddenly he was barking up a storm and running back to his owner to circle around him over and over again, tail wagging at such a rate that Heiji had trouble following its movements.

It took several minutes to calm him down enough for him and his owner to go.

"Hey sir, is your son gonna be fine with that?" Heiji asked, a bit uncertain again, when they reached the outer gate. He had offered to see them out specifically to ask that question in privacy, not wanting his father to witness a discussion regarding that particular topic.

"Me coming over, I mean..."

The Superintendent General looked surprised by his words, pausing to regard the teen silently for a few long moments. Then he let out a hum of consideration and his expression softened again in that friendly disposition he had, that seemed to put Heiji at such ease so easily.

"Who? Saguru?" the older man wondered aloud. "Why wouldn't he? He has only ever said good things about you."

As Heiji watched the man resume his pace, followed by a newly energized dog, he had no idea what to do with that.

** EPILOGUE **

Saguru let his body sink in the warm water with a sigh, closing his eyes and letting his head rest against the edge of the tub while his still twitching muscles slowly relaxed.

The first twenty-four hours after the transformation were always the worst. They weren't _painful_ but it always felt like his body was the wrong size, the wrong shape, and he had to get reacquainted with a few senses that worked differently than they did when he was a wolf: sounds and smells were duller, but there were so many colors when he was human - all of them so much more vibrant than he'd experienced in the last month - and they always gave him a headache for a while.

Then there was the difference in instincts: when he was a wolf, his memories and his knowledge remained the same, but frequently they were processed differently. He could still make logical leaps the same way a human would, and he could have a rational conversation - if one made the effort to agree on a system beforehand - but sometimes he would get distracted in the middle of a thought by a bird flying too low, or a car zooming by, and he would get this urge to _chase_ and _ground_ and _bite_, until it stopped moving and he would have found himself a nice meal.

Incidentally, that was part of the reason why he ended up stranded in Osaka.

Sorta.

More or less.

At least tangentially.

...

It was his father's fault anyways for not agreeing with Saguru's idea: if he had to spend four weeks out of eight as a wolf, then it was perfectly reasonable that he eventually found a job that suited that form.

And considering his normal interests, it would make sense to be helpful to the police force even when he had paws and a tail, especially since they came with a sense of smell that could recognize familiar scents from more than two kilometers away.

It just so happened that both Saguru and his father had been in Osaka for a completely unrelated matter, when The Whine finally won over the man's doubts, and the latter conceded to making at least one attempt at letting his son approach the local dog unit.

Saguru had _not_ been distracting the officers - no matter how much his father claimed otherwise. It wasn't his fault if the dogs were unnerved by his size and scent: he was just trying to be friendly and to follow the proper canine etiquette!

It was also not his fault if his wolf self didn't take "no" for an answer very well, and it decided that, if it wasn't allowed to do as it pleased, it might as well find something more entertaining to do - case in point: chasing birds - until Saguru came back to his senses only to find himself in an unfamiliar part of the city, with no recognizable scent to guide him around.

It took him two hours of aimless wandering before he finally found a scent that felt familiar, and then he'd found himself in front of Hattori's house.

The whole thing that followed with Hattori was...

Saguru...Saguru would process that one later, when he wasn't still feeling the lingering urge to run back to him because _ he was pack and pack should not be separated_.

Now that he had time to think, he should instead decide what to do about Edogawa-kun - about _Kudo-kun_ apparently. He wasn't entirely sure how a teen his age was shrunk into the body of a seven-year-old, but, considering he lived half his life as a completely different species, it wasn't so unreasonable to think about.

Still, he was curious about the details, and it warranted further inquiry.

The child - well, "not-child" was more appropriate now - however was careful, and it would probably be difficult to make him slip up, if Saguru were to approach him directly. Perhaps a bit of investigation next month, when he was in his canine form again would be more beneficial: Kudo-kun seemed fond of animals after all, and the half-British teen had learned in the years since his first transformation, that there were very few things that animal lovers would refuse to a friendly dog when approached with the right whine or the appropriate set of puppy eyes.

Course of action decided, he let himself relax once again in the water, leaning his head back and letting his gaze roam.

He could see the full moon watching him through the window from high in the sky.

The next time he laid his eyes on it, he would be a wolf, but it was fine: he was used to it after all, and that was simply how his body worked.


End file.
